DETOX CENTRE COMING TO FRASER VALLEY

The Fraser Valley will have its own 10-bed detox centre that could be up and
running within eight months.

"We received word just this week. That really is very good news," said Frank
Fung, the director for mental health and addictions for the Fraser East
region.

Fung, who works from the Abbotsford provincial mental health office, said he
and colleagues lobbied the Fraser Health Authority for an addictions
withdrawal management facility.

The annual operating budget is about $1.2 million, although Fung could not
say what the startup costs will be. He said the soonest the centre could be
ready is in six to eight months, as a site has to be found, renovated and
equipped and staff hired. The facility will provide medically supervised
drug withdrawal for eastern Fraser Valley men and women from Abbotsford to
the Fraser Canyon.

"We have a lot of work to do. We hope to house it in Chilliwack. It is a
more central location, for people travelling from the Fraser Canyon. Now we
got this green light, we'll make as user friendly as possible," said Fung.

Locating the facility centrally reduces the barrier of distance, making
access to treatment easier, he said. The nearest detox centre, the 22-bed
Maple Cottage in Burnaby, is too far for many clients in the eastern valley.
[That centre will be moved to Surrey and the number of beds increased, said
Fung.]

The new valley detox centre is the result of a mandate to improve access to
treatment and to integrate services and agencies in the FHA, said Sherry
Mumford, addictions leader for the health authority.

Integration of existing recovery programs with medical services - such as
family doctors and emergency rooms - and other agencies such as social
services is an important theme.

The idea is to fill in the gaps in a continuum of care, she said. Although
gaps remain, "we're heading in the right direction," said Mumford. She
listed Kinghaven, Peardonville House, Fraser House and the Mission Indian
Friendship Centre as partners that add to that continuum.

"Treatment is not an event, it's a process. It's useless for someone to get
sober and then send them on their way with no support," said Mumford, who
worked as a clinician in her 20 years in the field.

Patient groups such as seniors, youth and those with mental health issues
all have different needs. Most don't go to detox centres, but get treatment
through day programs or at home.

In Abbotsford, there is a clinician who deals only with seniors, whose
prescription drug use is exacerbated by alcohol and loneliness, said Fung.

There's also a big change in dealing with people who have both mental health
and addiction problems, a common crossover that professionals now recognize,
said Fung. It used to be that a client with an addiction had to have their
mental health issues cleared up before they could get addiction counselling,
or they had to get sober before their mental health issues could be treated,
said Fung.

Now a three-year pilot in Abbotsford in which a therapist was dedicated to
work with these concurrent issues has led to permanent concurrent disorder
program here and in the Chilliwack corridor, he said.

In addition, the FHA runs school-based substance abuse prevention programs
for middle school grades in local school districts. In Mission, for example,
students who are suspended from school attend a two-week program at Fraser
House, a counselling and addictions services agency. They can't return to
school until they complete the program.

They said the whole philosophy in the addictions and mental health field has
changed in recent years. The moral judgment and blame of those with
addictions is melting away, said Mumford.

"We're becoming more humane and understanding of people with substance abuse
factors. It could be anyone of us," she said.